Months Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight

February 12, 2022

Titus,

The first Christmas with you or your brothers was always a very special occasion, just to celebrate the milestone. But the second Christmas, where you’re walking, talking, and enjoying is even more special in many ways. Celebrating Christmas with you as you enjoyed time with your grandparents, cousins, and family; and celebrated our traditions was such a wonderful time. We celebrated with a candlelight Christmas Eve service, and you got to see the wonder of the light spreading through the sanctuary from person to person.

You haven’t quite realized that presents are supposed to be for you to open, so it’s far more fun to see you running around to carry presents to other people and just enjoying the whole time. You have quite realized that you’re the cutest in a Santa hat, which you now refer to as your “Ho ho ho!” It seems the presents require to you tear paper, which, up to this point, has been off limits to you.

Christmas also meant travel to and from Colorado to see friends and family, and to stay with them. You were so excited to get on the airplane to go visit, and very disappointed two days before that you didn’t get to get up to go on the airplane yet. Since Papa always made bacon or sausages in his air fryer, you’d pop right up in your crib in the morning and ask, “Hi Papa? Bacon? Sausage?” You also got to sleep over with your brothers for the first time at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. You had a wonderful time, but “Miss mommy” was the word when you got home. Sitting around the table at the restaurant, you greeted each of the 9 other cousins in turn. “Hi! Hi Grant! Hi! Hi Audrey!”, etc.

Coming back home to Virginia brought a snowstorm with 16 inches of snow and 36 hours without power. Daddy and your brothers got a whole week off work and school, and we did the gas stove, hanging out in front of the fireplace, games and books by flashlights, and lots of sledding. There’s nothing like the face you make deciding whether to cry over the face full of snow or enjoy the ride down the hill.

You are paying attention to every little thing that goes on around you now. Watching Mommy get ready in the bathroom, you walked over to the drawer and proceeded to give her makeup in the correct order. Just like Mommy and Daddy, you walked over to the kitchen hand towel, smelled it, and informed us “Dirty!”. Your older brothers have gotten into both Minecraft and Starcraft. Taking after them, you sit down at the table and say “Talk about Minecraft!” or “Two battlecruisers!” Not entirely sure what the words mean, but you’ve picked them all up from your brothers.

We find you after nap or bed playing in your crib, going through your words, and just generally having a good time. Seth put you in your crib at one point this month, at which point you climbed right out. That’s scored you the Sleep Sack Reversal, so the zipper is in the back and you can’t take it off. The loss of the use of your legs keeps you in the crib for now. Your brothers enjoy building forts out of whatever’s available, so you’re right on that train. We came in after nap to find that you’d “Built a fort!” by arranging a blanket for your stuffed animals.

The rapid vocabulary expansion also has you finishing sentences and books. You love to read the same book multiple times. From the Elephant and Piggie books to the Very Hungry Caterpillar, you know how almost every page ends. “And he was?” “Still hungry!”

You’ve started to figure out how to get your own pants on, especially jammies. (To be fair, you’ve been able to get them all off for a while, to include your diaper, especially with the promise of a bath, but that’s neither here, nor there.) It so fun to watch you figure out how to sit down, roll the pants so the tag is in the back, and work those legs in. With these discoveries, you’re also starting to figure out how to sit on the potty. “Potty!” It looks like it might be time for that soon. Again with the observation, we’ll see you closing the bathroom door with the statement, “Be out in a minute!” to blow your nose, or want to go potty, etc.

The bathroom also has water faucets, which are a new and intriguing experience for you. You went and got the stool out of the hallway bathroom to bring it to your bathroom. You proceeded to climb up to the counter, get your toothbrush, fill a glass with water, and carry the glass downstairs. We cannot leave you unsupervised ever. We knew this day would come when we gave you the room with its own bathroom, and here we are.

More words also brings more tattling on your brothers. “Seth pushed me!” “Oh yes? But did you hit him in the head?” “Yes.” When your first child tells you “No!” when you tell them to do something, it’s like a crisis of parenting. When the third kid does the same, it’s somehow cute (sometimes). Sorry to your older brothers for that one, Titus.

Mommy: “You need a haircut.” Titus, rubbing his hands across his head with a smile, “Fluffy puppy!” You bring so much joy to all of our days. We love you so very much.

Daddy and Mommy